Thermal Stimulation on Enhanced Coalbed Methane Recovery Under Microwave Heating Based on a Fully Coupled Numerical Model

Abstract

Abstract For the desorption of methane, thermal stimulation is an alternative to develop coalbed methane (CBM) when it is difficult to reduce the formation pressure. Microwave heating is a promising thermal method to increase the gas recovery of CBM especially for the CBM reservoir with high heterogeneity and low water content. The current study aims to establish a fully coupled numerical model to understand the enhanced gas recovery (EGR) mechanism of CBM under microwave heating. In the study, the CBM reservoir model was developed first. Then a mathematical model considering electromagnetic excitation, heat transfer, mass transfer, Langmuir adsorption, and fluid flow was built. Moreover, some important parameters were set as temperature-dependent to achieve the coupling effects among the multiphysics. Based on the above two models, a fully coupled electromagnetic-thermal-hydraulic-mechanical model was solved by the finite element, so that the distributions of electric field, reservoir temperature, methane concentration were able to be investigated. Finally, a sensitivity analysis including water content, microwave power and microwave heating mode was done based on the heating efficiency and EGR. Under microwave heating, the electric field distributes near the microwave heater with the maximum electric intensity as 1.07×103 V/m. The high electric intensity and low thermal conductivity easily enables microwaves to generate the required temperature region within CBM reservoir, so that 200 W power was applied to continuous heat the formation. Under 1 day, the maximum temperature of CBM reservoir increased to 81 °C, enabling the desorption of methane. Moreover, heating efficiency is controlled by the dielectric properties as well as electric field intensity of the CBM reservoir, although the existence of water content increases the dielectric constant within the CBM reservoir. In addition, by setting the temperature-dependent properties, microwave heating shows the ability to induce the pore volume changes by generating thermal stress, so that the porosity and permeability of CBM reservoir near the heater increase from 0.15 to 0.24 and from 0.36 mD to 1.47 mD, respectively. Based on the above positive effects of microwave heating, the CBM recovery could be significantly enhanced. Finally, in order to transfer the heat deeper into the reservoir, the feasibility of stepwise microwave heating mode has been successfully proven based on the temperature distribution within the CBM reservoir. In the study, microwave has showed great potential in enhancing the CBM recovery resulting from its high heating efficiency and pore induction effect. The results presented in this paper can provide comprehensive guidance for the optimization of microwave heating parameters.